In a converter, excess carbon is oxidized by introducing oxygen into the molten crude iron. The crude iron is thereby converted to steel.
DE 38 27 329 [U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,835] shows a torque-resisting strut for drives, particularly converter tilt drives, riding on the shaft trunnions, carrying the drive housing, and each flanged onto or screwed onto a step-down drive that engages with a pinion into a large gear mounted on the shaft trunnion so as to rotate with it, this mechanism consisting of strut rods attached symmetrically to the axis of rotation of the shaft trunnion to be driven to the drive housing by spherical bearings, the lower ends of the strut rods being respectively connected with pivots fixed on the floor and connected with one another by a rod. To this end the strut rods have in two parts; the free ends of the strut rods that are spaced from the pivots being connected with springs that function with tension and pressure, and the springs of the spring elements can be prestressed to a predetermined value by mechanical means.
WO 2003/023,072 [US 2005/0012253] shows a converter drive comprising a gear rim connected with the pivot trunnion of a converter vessel, in engagement with at least one drive pinion of the converter drive, and at least one locking device that can be pivoted into or out of the gears of the gear rim, in the form of a locking arm mounted on a horizontal shaft and formed with gear teeth. This converter drive is characterized in that the shaft of the locking arm is mounted in at least one bearing in the end position, and that the locking arms can be moved, with force fit, into the gear teeth of the gear rims by actuators, for example hydraulic cylinders, and can be moved out of engagement with the gear teeth and that the shaft of the locking arm is mounted in the housing of the converter drive at its shaft ends each with an eccentric bushing mounted to rotate freely in one another, in such a manner that a mutually ideal engagement position of the two interacting toothed regions of the locking device and of the gear rim can be adjusted by independent rotation of these bushings.
DE 26 54 907 [U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,481] shows a device on a converter having a tilt drive that is suspended on a tilt trunnion of the converter, and a strut that rests resiliently on the base. To this end, the tilt drive can be fixed in place relative to the base during the blowing process by a positioner.
EP 003 108 [U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,136] shows a strut for a drive that is mounted to move about a pivot axis, particularly for a converter drive, where the drive housing is supported, relative to the base, on both sides of the pivot axis with an elastic support device. In this connection, a cylinder to which compressed gas is applied is provided as the elastic support device; its position can be adjusted, relative to the base, by an adjustment device.
DE 30 07 916 [U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,666] shows a strut for a cantilevered drive, particularly for converter drives, the drive housing being mounted on its shaft trunnion that can be driven and carries a large gear, multiple step-down drives that drive the large gear being flanged onto the housing with their drive motors, in each instance, and first parallel levers spaced at equal intervals on opposite sides of the axis of rotation of the shaft trunnion being fixed to it by way of joints, which levers are connected with two identical parallel levers that are pivoted at a fixed location, with at least one coupler that connects the parallel levers, one of which extends at a slant and is provided with a spring, all the joints having ball joints. This strut is characterized in that the second parallel levers run at a slant in the normal position, that the coupler has at least two longitudinal segments each provided with a gap and that the coupler is articulated onto the joints that connect the two parallel levers.
A fixing member of an element of a kinematic chain, such as an element of a gear wheel translation, for example, is known from DE 600 04 714 [U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,829]. Such a fixing member is fixed to a base of a steel plant converter, for example.
It is therefore known that the converters are tilted for emptying by a cantilevered drive. In this connection, support of the turning moment is always done by a rigid brace strut, which is attached to a base on one end and on the drive on the other end. Converters having jets below the bath level are exposed to severe vibrations as the result of the moving steel bath during operation, i.e. when oxygen is fed in. This excitation takes place over a broad range in all directions, in other words also in the tilting direction. In order to relieve the stress of very great surges on the drive, the large gear is engaged by a locking arm that ensures that the surges are no longer applied by the large gear and the pinions, but rather are taken up by the strut, directly by way of the drive housing. In this connection, great forces act on the base of the casting platform and the brace strut, which leads to damage to the casting platform and other system parts.